Jewish group slams former Nazi's talk at Kenosha school

November 07, 2001|By Marla Donato, Tribune staff reporter.

A former Nazi Waffen SS soldier's recent presentation to about 100 high school students in Kenosha was condemned Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League as "outrageous, grossly insensitive and shameful."

In an interview with a local newspaper after speaking at Kenosha Military Academy, a division of Reuther Central High School, the former soldier discounted the Holocaust.

"What troubles us most is the exposure of young developing minds to the representation of the greatest evil of the 20th Century in a way that glorifies the Nazis and attempts to deny the Holocaust," said Richard Hirschhaut, the ADL's Midwest director.

School officials who approved the Oct. 24 talk by Konrad Mikula, a former corporal in Adolf Hitler's elite forces and later a prisoner of war, said his visit was intended to give students a balanced view of being a World War II soldier.

Reuther Principal Dan Tenuta said Tuesday that after receiving dozens of calls from community members he concluded it was not a good idea to have approved the request made by the military academy's Lt. Col. Jack Gibbons, a friend of Mikula. Gibbons was unavailable for comment.

"Would I do it again? No." said Tenuta. "I understand the reaction, and I feel bad about it because the intent for what we were trying to do was 180 degrees from what happened."

Tenuta and interim School Supt. Joseph Hentges said the talk was part of a historical look at the war that included a British documentary on concentration camps and a field trip to see a production of "The Diary of Anne Frank."

Whatever the intent, ADL officials and Rabbi Dena Feingold of Beth Hillel Temple in Kenosha, which has with about 100 families, said Mikula, who was visiting from Germany, was an inappropriate speaker because of what he represents.

"It's the same reason you don't invite someone from the KKK to speak about what color sheets they use," Feingold said. "I don't understand the concept of a balanced view or the other side when the Holocaust is a historic fact."

The appearance generated more controversy with an article in the Kenosha News. In an interview after his presentation, the News reported Mikula said he doesn't believe the concentration camps existed.

Whether Mikula said that at the school is in dispute. Regardless, Feingold and Hirschhaut said school officials were naive to allow a former SS soldier to speak at the school, especially one from Hitler's elite Waffen unit.

Tenet said the school has arranged for concentration camp survivors to talk to students next week, and the school is considering forming a committee with community members to establish a policy on speakers.